Unsure, and Unprepared
by EddingsFan
Summary: Gajeel wants Levy to accept his overtures and become his mate. Things are going well, for now. Written for Andy, and posted for the rest of y'all's entertainment. Future lemon, possible other stuff, NO LIME. This is primarily fluff and pining, minimal angst.


Chapter 1

"I TOLD you we shouldn't have taken that job." Gajeel glared down at his little blue haired shrimp in feigned grumpiness, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Oh come on. You liked reading those manuscripts on metals that I translated." Levy looked up at the mountain of a man walking beside her as they made their way over to the bar of the guildhall to turn in their job.

"Yeah, but you ended up getting hurt." He grumbled while looking down at her small paper cut on her right pointer finger. He felt guilty. If he hadn't come up behind her, trying to subtly take a whiff of her enticing perfume, he wouldn't have startled her, causing her to cut herself on a manuscript. It was his job to protect her, and he hadn't done his job, in fact, he had done the OPPOSITE.

"Oh Gajeel, how many times do I have to tell you, I'm FINE." Levy gently laid her hand on his crossed upper arm, pressing softly before pulling away as she hopped up onto a bar stool.

"Here ya go Mira!" Levy chirped, handing her the completed request. She glanced over her shoulder at Gajeel, feeling him stand closely behind her, and confirmed it with the sight of a scarred muscled arm not a foot away from her back. His breath played lightly with her hair, reminding her of his headband holding her hair back. Her orange headband had, unfortunately lost the fight with the ink pot on the desk she commandeered for their mission, the ends brushing through it and becoming permanently stained.

*~* _Flashback*~*_

It was on the third day since they arrived at their job that it happened.

"AGGGGHHHH!" Levy exclaimed as her headband's right end dragged ink all over the page of notes she was working on. She had accidentally dipped the end of her headband in her inkwell, permanently staining it, and ruining that page of her notes.

Hearing her outburst, Gajeel looked up from the page of her notes he was reading, and nearly silently moved from his seat to crouch beside her to-big chair. Before she could move to get her extra out of her bag, Gajeel wordlessly took the soiled strip of orange cloth off of Levy's head, gently tying his own around her unruly hair. It was so long that it almost wrapped twice around her head untied. He tied it with a large bow at the nape of her neck, leaving the ends to dangle past her shoulders, lightly brushing her collarbones. Levy looked up at him with a confused expression, her fingers gently brushing the ends of his headband.

"Don't you dare get that dirty. It's my favorite one," he proclaimed in an angry voice, turning away to hide his rosy blush behind her notes on the specific properties of unrefined iron.

Levy nodded, knowing he would see, and turned back to her work, moving her inkwell farther up on her desk, so she wouldn't damage his thoughtful loan.

*~* _End Flashback*~*_

At the time she had simply been thankful, but as time progressed on their two week mission, she began to think that it meant more to him than a simple loan.

*~* _Flashback*~*_

Levy came out of her room without a headband a few mornings after Gajeel loaned it to her, coincidentally exiting her room at the same time Gajeel exited his. His morning greeting died in his throat as he looked at her. He had the most devastated and painful look on his face that she had ever seen from him for a whole of five seconds before he masked it with his typical vaguely angry expression. Gajeel stuck out his hand, asking, "Can I at least have it back if you aren't even going to wear it?" His voice scathing and laced with something she couldn't place.

Levy stood staring at his hand for a good ten seconds before the light of recognition dawned in her eyes. "OH!" She exclaimed before hurriedly rushing back into her room, snatching up his headband, but she paused in the act of walking back into the hallway.

She didn't want to return it. She had been wearing it every day since he loaned it to her, and she had become quite attached to it. It belonged to the guy she had been crushing on for months, years if you count the Tenrou incident. Levy made up her mind, marching out into the hallway, closing her door behind her. She turned to Gajeel, smiling as she said, "I'll keep it for now if you don't mind. I like wearing it. I get why it's your favorite." She threw in a wink after her statement in a rare bout of courage, turning to walk down the hallway, tying her hair up on the way.

She completely missed Gajeel's huge grin, or the way his eyes followed her hips as she walked, his eyes flashing with pride and lust.

 _*~*End Flashback*~*_

Levy turned back to Mira and discussed the job animatedly while smirking internally. _I guess that perfume I bought right before we left DOES smell good to animals._ _It would explain why he's constantly invading my space lately._ Mira was called over to refill Macao's drink, smiling at Levy and Gajeel as she strolled off. Levy jumped as Gajeel grabbed her wrist, none-to gently pulling her off her bar stool and toward the doors.

"C'mon Shrimp. I'm hungry." Gajeel looked sideways and down towards Levy, hoping she couldn't feel the way his heart was beating faster feeling her soft skin under his fingertips. He had been obsessing about her skin since they left, her new perfume driving him crazy. She already smelled amazing, but with that stuff… He growled to himself, shaking his head like a dog to clear his mind. He had a reason for holding her wrist like this, and it was not to marvel at the feeling of her velvety skin.

He was going to show her how he really felt.

Now, dragons had a pretty basic way of mating.

Step 1: Find mate. For Gajeel, once he was able to admit his feelings, he was perfectly confident he had found his destined mate.

Step 2: Impress mate with prowess and gain her interest. The combination of missions and Tenrou Island definitely showed his prowess, and while he was not happy she had to carry him afterward and care for him, he felt that he protected her to the best of his ability. Honestly, he found her more attractive because she defended him as well when he was unable to protect himself.

Step 3: Bring mate gifts and/or trophies, and earn her favor. This can sometimes mean kills, or, in a certain dragon slayer's case, a headband.

Step 4: Scent mark mate and defeat any other suitors, guarding and protecting the mate from all harm to show that you can protect the hatchlings.

Step 5: When female is in heat, bring her to your nest that you have made and gift her with more things, preferably shiny and/or valuable things.

Step 6: Mate, exchanging scales.

Boom. Simple.

On their last mission together, Levy had expressed that she was a romantic, a sucker for all the chocolates and roses stuff. At first Gajeel had been discouraged, but after some careful prodding, he discovered that she liked the tough, bad boy type. At the time he had smirked internally, _if there's one look I have down, it's the bad boy look._ Although he was confident that he knew the way most women worked, he was not at all confident about Levy's inner workings. In the past, he had rolled with his partner's whims, not really giving two shits how the relationship went, as long as he got what he wanted, and she stayed off his dick. He never tried to figure out anything about the girl. They were simply there so that other people would get off his back about being single.

 _Now HER,_ Gajeel thought to himself, _her I had to do research for._ Gajeel read to many cheesy romance novels for his taste. He had snuck into her room while Team Natsu and Shadowgear were out on missions, therefore missing both Erza and Levy, and wrote down a list of the most worn books in her room.

He then went to the local library and checked all of them out, swearing the librarian to silence. The librarian of course was a close friend of Levy's, and while unsure about the large man's interest in his favorite bluenette, he was impressed by Gajeel's determination. When Gajeel got home with his armload of literature, he plunked himself down at his kitchen table with the note taking tools he pilfered from Levy's stash and began to read. Most of the books were for research, but he had struck gold on a few, and had painstakingly read and reread through them, even going so far as to ask Lily and Lucy for love advice. They advised him to tread the line between the two worlds, following his father's steps to mating, with some romance here and there.

So far, he had completed Step 1 for sure, was moderately sure he had Step 2 down (he trusted Lucy on this one, apparently she and Levy talked about him and Natsu all the time, a fact he wasn't sure he was okay with knowing), and was about to move on to Step 3.

And that was how he got to be here, a mile from his house, still gripping the wrist of his chosen mate, sweating nervously, and trying not to lose his cool.

Because back at the house was the first OFFICIAL gift. The most important one. If she refused to accept this gift for ANY reason, in his mind, it was all over. This was his way of getting his foot in the proverbial door, and he couldn't mess this up. He had loaned her his headband as a test, a quick foray into the no-man's-land, if you will. This gift could not be played off as a loan, or anything other than what it was.

A confession of his love, and a declaration of his attentions.

He couldn't afford to fuck this up.


End file.
